The hike around Ljubljana on May 12th is now officialy on! So pack a spare pair of socks, clean up your sneakers or hiking boots, run out to buy a couple of bottles of water, a chocolate bar and some bateries for your camera.
Details will be forthcoming some time next week – no later than next Saturday. In the mean time, applications are welcome!
One of the peculiar things about Slovenes (apart from wearing copate) is the urge to have their own speck of land. Most of us would like to have a speck of land somewhere in Croatia, prefferably close to sea, but during the off-season Slovenes (and Ljubljanchans are no exception) tend to have their own garden – prefferably in the middle of an urban area.
Be it just a reflex (the fact is that most Ljubljanchans have peasant/farmer ancestry), a need to be somewhat self-sufficient, or just trying to make ends meet… the habit has grown waaaay out of proportion in the last decade or so. Those, who will join me for the hike around Ljubljana on Liberation day, will have the unique opportunity to see just how many of these small gardens (vrtički) are there around Ljubljana. In fact there are so many, that people who own them, are commonly called vrtičkarji, or The Gardeners… (Sounds like The Klingons 😀 )
The Mayor has recently decided to put a stop to it (for which I applaud him loudly). Being as gentle as a T-34 tank on a bad day, he issued “a request” that The Gardeners tear down all the shacks they illegally errected during the years. Now these shacks are a curious thing… They usually start as nothing more than a storage facility for tools and some fertilizer, but pretty soon – seemingly out of nowhere – they start sporting electricity, tap water, an occasional refridgerator, a porch and a grill. They become a home away from home… And as a rule they look ugly… Really ugly.
Thus Zoki “requested” (meaning: ordered) that owners tear them down – otherwise he’ll do it for them and send them the bill. Some have heeded his calls without further a-do, others have done so reluctantly, whereas still others flipped him the bird.
And when I say “tore down”, I don’t mean “disassemble and take the material to the junk yard”… No, sir. For this is Slovenia! Nay, this is Ljubljana! Who the fuck is this mayor character to tell us what to do?!? OK, we’ll do it, but we’ll send a message! Like Vinetou we’ll send smoke signals to Zoki saying that he can go stick his head in the lavatory for this….
Ljubljana burning
We send message to big white warrior: you burn our huts, we burn your hut
Those of you who are somewhat familiar with medevial Slovene history know of peasant rebellions… And of course you know of last week’s City Hall Brawl… The problem is that the last time around the protesters were armed with walking canes, whereas The Gardeners, when they stage a protest, will be armed with stick and shovels.
On May 9, 1945 Ljubljana was liberated by Slovene Partisan Forces. In celebration of this there is an annual event “Po poteh spominov in tovarištva” – basically a hike around Ljubljana, more or less where barbed wire was installed by the Italian occupator. I go on this hike every year and am planning to go this year as well. And I have a question.
Would anyone else like to go to? I’m planning on doing some “live blogging” as I installed a nice little plugin for posting via mobile phone, or I may even take my laptop, camcoder and wireless card and do some video-blogging.
This is just an initial “sounding of the terrain” and I’m not confirming a mass event just yet. But if there’s enough of you who’d like to partake in this celebration of liberty and Partisan music, we can have a lot of fun.
It’s an approximately 6-7 hour hike, mostly flat terrain (just one hill to overcome) and it takes place on Saturday, May 12th. Unless I fall ill, I’ll do it regardless of the weather.
Photo of RW via The Scotsman – photo of mayor Janković via The Firm™
Now you know where Robbie will end up when his career is over…
A rally against the renovation of Ljubljana Central Market took place yesterday afternoon. At the same time a group of supporters of renovation staged their own rally, much to annoyance of (mostly elderly) people who fervently opposed Mayor Janković’s plan to build a parking lot below the Central Market, claiming that the nearby Castle hill would be a much more appropriate location.
And while the anti-parking lot rally cursed mayor Janković (a piece i did for The Firm™ is available here), sending him “back to Serbia” and accusing him of lining his own pockets, it once again became clear that those, who value the Central European (that is Austrian) moral, architectual, social, policital and cultural status quo, are actually more brutal and savage than any of the trully Balkan savage tribes.
I understand that over there they have a long tradition of picketing. But this form of democracy is way too much for this sorry country. You know: you can take a man out of the Balkans, but can never take the Balkans out of a man.
Once again – shit is brewing…
Quarters of Ljubljana. Could this map become radically different?
During yesterday’s session of Ljubljana City Council rumours started flying about several quarters of Ljubljana seceding from the city and forming their own municipalities. Among them are Moste, Polje, Črnuče and Dravlje
The main reason for this line of thought is of course lack of funds provided for the seventeen quarters of Ljubljana in this year’s budget (which has yet to be adopted, presumably next week).
While nothing is (as yet) official, it is not totally impossible. There are a couple of criteria a particular area has to meet in order to form its own municipality:
-at least 5000 inhabitants
-an elementary school
-a community health centre (“zdravstveni dom”)
-a post office
-a library
-appropriate infrastructure (tap water, electricity, seweage)
-financial services of a savings bank or bank
Articles 13. and 13a. of the Law on Self-Government
Hopefully this will not happen, because in the long term both Ljubljana and the would-be breakaway quarters would be worse off (except Sostro quarter, which in my opinion is so radically rural that it has no place in an urban municipality).
But this is yet another example of why Slovenia has 210 municipalities. Because the current Law on financing municipalities favours small and unsustainable municipalities which are dependant on government money, thus being more prone to government influence.
Danica Simšič saw her ruling coalition disintegrate. Could it be that Zoran Janković will see his city disintegrate?
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Trzaska cesta at 1 A.M.
In case you ever wondered what is going on in Ljubljana at one o’clock in the morning in the middle of the week, here is your answer…
absolutely nothing 🙂
